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The Proper Secret Hitler comes to NoBoG

NoBoG is a group of board gamers in Norwich that I play games with on a regular basis. This week I got to teach a couple of people how to play Castles of Mad King ludwig and was witness to the very first game of the proper version of a game called Secret Hitler.

Damm that game looks nice

Secret Hitler is a game that has been coming to NoBoG for quite a while now and has been played on many occasions. Up until now it has always been print and play copies but the nice proper versions finally started arriving this week so I knew for sure that this game would get played at NoBoG this week.

Earlier in the day I had been asked to bring along Castles of Mad King Ludwig which I was more than happy to do. For this game I was joined by Elżbieta and the two Tim’s, one of which knew what they were doing so much that they only just went and won the whole game.

Our Castles for Mad King Ludwig who wasn’t actually Mad.

One of the main reasons that I like Castles of Mad King Ludwig is the strategy involved when setting room prices and where and when you place buildings. It is possible to get some really nice combos and no matter how many times you play no castle is ever the same two games in a row. It was great to see the new players pick it up so easily and having so much fun playing the game.

By the time we had reached our penultimate round the Secret Hitler players were starting to assemble. Elżbieta wanted to join that game so once she had bought her last room we were able to let her go and I was able to finish scoring with the help of the Tim that Won. Secret Hitler had filled up which meant I could only sit on the sidelines and watch but hey at least it gave me the opportunity to take some photos on the game.

Time for a round of Secret Hitler

Parts of the game had been shown off earlier in the night but it was cool to finally see the proper version of Secret Hitler in action. In this game the bad guys are trying to remain hidden while secretly plotting to enact fascist policies or to elect Secret Hitler to the position of chancellor while the liberals are just trying to find a way to stop them.

What I like about this game is that process of trying to figure who is on your side and who you need to stop. Both sides have there own challenges and while enacting to many fascist policies can be bad for the liberals, they do have the benefit of unlocking some pretty interesting powers. The liberals seemed to have everything figured out and they had moved quite far up the victory track.

Things got pretty tense as players tried to figure out who was on their side

While watching the game I had tried to figure out exactly who the liberals and the fascists were. Eventually it got to a point where the liberals were virtually assured of victory so when the final liberal policy was enacted what else could they do but cheer in triumph.

I was certainly surprised by some of the people playing who I expected to be on one team but were actually on the other. The proper version of Secret Hitler certainly looked pretty nice and I really hope that I will get the chance to play it with everyone the next time it comes to NoBoG.